It won't be easy
by MidnightCharm18188
Summary: Harry and Draco have a secret friendship and an even more secret relationship. How will their feelings affect the war? Will the two come out to the entire school? What will they do? * ON HIATUS *
1. Prologue

Prologue

The house was dark. Those residing there had gone to bed hours ago. All but one that is, he was just waking up. Already the boy is strange, being nocturnal, but the oddness doesn't end there.

He spends all his time cleaning. He is woken during the day by his relatives to cook meals, but eats almost nothing himself. That is not his choice, however. His family hates him, if his aunt, uncle and cousin could be considered family. They force him to do all the house work. They hate him because he is a wizard and for most of the year he attends a boarding school, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. And to top off the list, he is Harry Potter, the one destined to defeat Voldemort. Harry had no clue how he was to do that when he spent his time at school trying to cover evidence of beatings and recover from malnutrition.

So now the dark haired boy is about to start his sixth year at Hogwarts and he has a secret. A secret he has had for three years. A secret only three others on the planet knew about. Sadly Ron and Hermione were not on that list, they wouldn't accept it.

Dumbledore, Snape, and Draco were the only ones that knew the secret. The secret is a friendship. A friendship that everyone believed impossible, a friendship between Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy. No one would believe the two had been friends for three years so they simply kept it a secret, and because of the war.

Harry and Draco being very high profile people and supposed to be on opposing sides of the war made them targets. It was no secret that Draco's father supported the dark side, and Harry was the poster child for the light. So only their trusted mentors knew the truth. Or most if it.

Near the end of fifth year a gentle romantic relationship sprung up between the two and they decided to let it grow. They had not told anyone for it was too new, too fragile but the time was approaching that they would have to tell their mentors for the sake of the war. Will their relationship change the outcome of this war? Or will Draco become Harry's achilles heel?


	2. Chapter 1

**_Warning: this chapter has abuse That involves knife. _**

The first thing Harry as aware of was the fact that his whole body ached. When he tried to sit up the ache flared into searing pain. Nothing new of course. He had been cooking breakfast when his uncle decided he was being lazy.

The first strike was mild, calculating as Vernon decides how he wants to go about the beating. The next blow was hard on his lower back, causing him to fall to the floor. Then Vernon starts to viciously kick and stomp on Harry, but only for a few minutes. The obese man then turned and got out a carving knife. This was new. Harry tried to get away but he backed himself into a corner. The fear in his nephew's eyes only seemed to encourage fat man on. He pinned Harry to the floor and lifted the teen's shirt. Then, looking Harry right in the eyes, made a slow, moderately deep cut halfway down Harry's torso. After about ten minutes Harry passes out. He assumes he was tossed in his room afterwards, and he would be correct.

Looking around the room he saw a towel and a bowl of water just inside the door. That was probably Dudley. After the dementor attack last summer he occasionally did things like this. Harry moved slowly. He didn't know how bad the damage was yet. He stood, feeling the dried blood, and crossed the small room to retrieve the bowl and towel.

Sitting back on his bed he began the tedious and excruciating task of removing his shirt. There was almost no space on the shirt that wasn't drenched in blood. After fifteen minutes of not being able to even lift the hem of his shirt he accepted that he had to ask to use the shower. He checked the clock and saw that it was about noon. That was good, it meant his uncle was at work. Petunia wouldn't want the neighbours seeing her bloody nephew and would insist he clean up. So he began the trek downstairs knowing she wouldn't come to him.

Twenty minutes later he had succeeded and had just made it to the bathroom. He took off the too big jeans, thankful for once that they fell to the floor on their own, and climbed into the shower in his boxers and shirt. He stood there, letting the water soak into his shirt. It hurt, the water hitting him but he was no stranger to pain. Harry watched the red water run down the drain. When the red faded to a pink he turned to rinse the other side. As that side was rinsing he set about pulling the shirt away from his body and ripping it, slowly, along the seam.

It only took him about ten minutes to get his ruined shirt off. He then thoroughly cleaned out the shower, making sure there was no evidence he had used it. He pulled his on the pants, trying not to bend his back, and walked stiffly back to his tiny bedroom.

He grabbed the water and towel again as well as a threadbare shirt to rip into bandages. Ripping the shirt caused the cuts to bleed freely instead of the slow trickle it had been. Once the shirt was torn Harry began to clean his chest and bandage it as he went. When he was done his entire chest was wrapped thickly in the shirt.

Harry was tired but he could not sleep yet. He had made a promise to Draco, his friend of three years, that if the abuse got worse he would leave. Normally Harry would have ignored a promise like this but since he and Draco had started dating he felt obligated, despite the fact that they hadn't even kissed yet. So Harry picked up his quill and penned a letter to the blond teen telling him where he would be and signed it SH for Scar Head. Using the tip of his wand he tapped an ancient rune on the edge of the parchment. The paper folded itself and disappeared, sending itself.

Harry put on a long sleeved shirt and packed his trunk. He activated one of two runes on it, shrinking the trunk to pocket size. Draco had taught him long ago that rune magic wasn't tracked but shouldn't be used too much. Grabbing his trunk, Gringots key in his pocket and wand up his sleeve, he walked swiftly and silently down he stairs, the task being much easier now that his chest was bandaged. His aunt was in the living room entertaining a guest that must have shown up while Harry was tending his wounds. She didn't even look up as Harry crept past the room and the youth slipped soundlessly out the front door.

Harry made his way down the street. It was daylight and that was throwing him off, he was used to it being night. He found an alley and called the knight bus. A second later the violently purple slammed to a stop in front of him. He climbed on and dug out a few coins for the trip and gives his destination before grabbing a pole. It was useless to sit down since it only took ten minutes tops to get to Diagonal Alley.

When the bus stopped in front of the Leaky Cauldron Harry hastily made his way in and through the bar, careful not to be seen. He made his way to Gringots and was going to withdraw money but saw advertisement for credit cards and decided that would be better than carrying cash. By the time he left the bank he had two hundred pounds in his pocket and a new credit card. He then headed back into muggle London to an apartment building that he had found a few years ago that would rent to a minor. They gave him an apartment swiftly, fully furnished and everything. They allowed Harry to move in the same day and so there Harry sat, waiting for word from Draco.


	3. Chapter 2

Draco Malfoy was sitting in his room bored out of his mind. He couldn't owl anyone for fear he would accidentally reveal his true loyalties to the light, so he sat in his room, reading and doing his summer work and he was BORED. He was laying on the edge of his bed staring at the ceiling when the letter appeared next to him with a pop. The letter startled him and he fell off the bed. Grumbling and picking himself up off the floor, Draco opened the letter. As he started to read he resumed his position on the bed.

_Hey Draco, how is your summer? As sucky as mine I'll bet! Heheh. Obviously I am not writing for a chat, because we agreed that was dangerous. I am writing because of that promise I made you. The one about my relatives. It has gotten worse. I am honouring my promise and I am leaving as soon as I send this. I will be running to Gringots then to that place I told you about at school. They should rent to me but if not I don't know what I am going to do. You said if-when- this happened you wanted me to tell you and that you would come see me. I really wish you wouldn't see me like this but I know I can't keep you away. I will see you later and... You should bring clean bandages. A lot of them. _

_See you soon, SH_

Draco was on his feet instantly and started packing. There was no way in hell he was leaving Harry alone in the muggle world. He ordered a house elf to bring him a massive amount of bandages, then uses the fireplace in his room to floo to the Leaky Cauldron. Just like Harry, he called the knight bus and let it drive him to about a block from the building. Draco took off walking and didn't stop until he was at the main office, since he didn't know where the room was.

The woman at the desk, despite looking tired, seemed friendly enough. "Are you here to rent? You are the second teen here today."

"No actually I am looking for my friend. He has dark messy hair and glasses. Was that him? He neglected to tell me his room number." At the woman's nod he inwardly sighed with relief. At least he had the right place. All muggle buildings looked the same to him.

"Oh, sure! His building is 221 and he is in apartment B. Have a good day!"

"You too, miss." Draco waved in farewell and headed off to Harry's apartment.

He knocked on the door and set about waiting, since he assumed Harry was asleep; however the door flew open almost immediately and he had his arms full of Harry, the messy black hair tickling his nose as he gently hugged the boy back. The hug didn't last long due to Harry's injuries, so the two separated and Draco kissed Harry on the cheek before he entered the tiny sitting room/kitchen.

In the room was a sofa and arm chair as well as the coffee table with the tv mounted on the wall. Connected to and separated by a countertop was the kitchen. It had the basic fridge, stove, and sink as well as a pantry. Draco glanced around and sat on the sofa, pulling Harry down next to him by the hand.

"As much as I would like to simply visit, we have to tell Severus. He can help and he deserves to know where we will be living until September. He can also put up wards for us."

Harry let out a long, weary sigh. "I know. You're right, but I hate people seeing me like this. Just hurry and send the letter before I lose my nerve. It will only take him ten minutes to get here, so why waste time." It took him a second to catch it and he had to make sure he had heard right. "Did you just say 'we'?"

Draco grabbed some parchment out of his trunk and set about the letter. It was short. They both knew Severus would be pissed if they said too much and the letter got intercepted. "Yes. I will be living with you. For two reasons. One: I don't want you to be all by yourself and two: my father is pushing me to join Voldemort." Harry accepted this turn of events so Draco threw one last thing out there. "We should also tell Severus we are together. It would make everything easier if we didn't have to hide around him."

Harry was having trouble believing the grouchy man would agree, but not feeling up to arguing, Harry nodded and Draco sent the letter. As they waited for their professor, Harry nodded off and was snoring softly when the man showed up. Draco gently shook Harry awake, then let Severus in.

Severus was dressed in a black tshirt and dark jeans looking very much like a muggle. He was looking over the apartment just as Harry, without thinking, tried to stretch. With a cry of pain the teen doubled over and fell to the floor. Draco and Severus rushed to help him up, and Harry was cursing softly. They got Harry back on the couch, he was leaning heavily on Draco. Severus took the armchair.

"So would the two of you care to explain why we are in a muggle apartment and why Harry is in a great deal of pain?" Severus, despite the familiar use of Harry's name, was using is no nonsense professor voice.

Draco summed up his side if the story quickly and efficiently. "I made Harry promise that if the abuse he suffered at the Dursley's got any worse he would leave. It got worse so we now live here. I am here because my father is pressuring me to join the Dark Lord."

The room was silent as Harry braced himself. He drew in a deep breath and tried to sum up his life. "The Dursley's hate me. They always have. To them I am a freak and they hate that I don't fit into their apple pie life. They have always made me do their housework, all the cooking and cleaning. They started beating me at around five. The same time I started cooking. When I started Hogwarts the beatings got even worse. They beat me to a pulp at the drop of a hat. I told Draco all of this a year or two back and when we started dating, near the end if last year, he made me make the promise to leave if it got worse. Vernon got out a knife this time. Once I regained consciousness I sent a letter to Draco and left. Draco showed up about half an hour ago. Now here we are."

There was a pause then Severus said exactly what Harry didn't want to hear. "You said he had a knife. How bad are your injuries? Show me."

Harry pulled away from Draco and took off the long sleeved shirt. The bloody makeshift bandages had fresh blood seeping through from trying to stretch. He heard Draco gasp and Severus' sharp intake of breath. He looked at their faces and saw horrified expressions. Harry wanted to disappear, but they had recovered and Draco was getting out his trunk to get bandages while Severus was conjuring a bowl of water and a towel, simultaneously pulling out a pouch if healing potions.

Harry drank the blood replenishing potion handed to him and sat motionless as Severus removed the bandages. The frown on the potion master's face increased with sincere concern the more he saw of Harry's chest. Draco had set the mass of various bandages next to Severus and was now holding Harry's hand, running his thumb over Harry's knuckles soothingly.

What seemed like an eternity later, Severus stood and disposed of all the bloody materials. Harry wanted nothing more than sleep. Draco pulled the obviously exhausted Harry to his feet and put his hand on the tired boys cheek, causing their eyes to meet. Draco was filled with a warm protectiveness for the dark haired teen. Without thinking he let the words tumble from his lips. "I love you, Harry. So much."

A slow smile spread across Harry's face, he too was filled with warmth. "I love you, too." They stares into each others eyes and each began to lean forward.

Their lips met in a sweet kiss. Neither rushing anything, just a mutual expression of love. But then they felt magic flare. It spread and covered both their bodies before concentrating on their wrists. They broke apart and with confusion, looked down at their wrists. They were now wearing two intricate silver bands each, one on each wrist.

Severus, who had set about putting up wards, had just finished one to contain magical outbursts when he felt the powerful flare behind him. He turned in time to see the magic pool at the teens wrist and the two break their kiss. He knew what had just happened. He had read the lore. "Well, shit."


	4. Chapter 3

Harry and Draco turned to face their professor, they wanted to know what had just happened. The man was staring at their wrists with an unreadable expression on his face. "Severus?" Draco ventured. Severus raised his eyes to meet Draco's. "Put him to bed, child. Stay with him. I will explain tomorrow. Harry can hardly stand." The potion master's voice was uncharacteristically soft, and Draco didn't argue.

The apartment had a full size bed and Draco led Harry to it. The messy haired teen collapsed onto the bed and curled into a ball. Draco managed to pull the comforter out from under him and pull the blanket up to his chin. Draco walked to the other side of the bed and laid down next to his boyfriend. Harry curled into Draco's side And fell asleep, Draco following minutes later.

Severus finished putting up the wards and collapsed onto the couch. Those boys were like sons to him, and this was defiantly an unforeseen turn if events. It had always been obvious that the two had a connection. When they had put aside their differences and become friends, Harry had seen past the act he put up in the classroom and the three had grown extremely close. So Severus fell asleep remembering the last three years with his boys.

He remembered how excited Draco was and how scared and worried Harry was when they agreed to be friends. He remembered Harry's surprise when Severus had dropped the act. He remembered the boys pranking each other, then hiding behind Severus when the other came in seeking revenge, always causing a messy battle between the three. With a small smile, Severus fell asleep.

The next morning was slow. Despite their curiosity about the bracelets, there was a more pressing matter. There was no food. Harry hadn't ate yesterday and after about an hour without food he snapped. "That's it. We are going out for breakfast. Everyone get dressed." Then he grabbed an outfit and disappeared into the bathroom for ten minutes. When he remerged, Draco and Severus were waiting patiently. He grabbed his wallet and made for the door. "Come on, there should be a café about a block away."

No one payed them any mind as they made their way down the street, and they made it to the café without incident. They made their order and picked the booth in the corner, away from the windows. "Okay Severus, start talking." Draco ordered his mentor. "We have put it off long enough. Explain these." He said putting both his arms on the table, the bracelets on full display.

Severus sighed. This conversation could go one of two ways. The boys accepting what had happened and wanting to know more, or angry that this was forced upon them and refuse to listen. Hopefully it was option A. Drawing in a deep breath he dropped the bomb. "You two are soul mates."

Harry and Draco were left gaping. They were still trying to grasp the concept as their food arrived. It was Draco who recovered first. "Soul mates are just a myth. A pretty story told to kids."

"No they are very real, Draco. They are simply extraordinarily rare. There has not been a set if soul mates since the founder's time. But there is no mistaking it. Those bracelets represent the bond. You will not be able to take them off."

It was Harry's turn to speak, and he was much calmer than Draco. "I believe you Severus. You would not tell us unless you were sure. So tell us what you know."

It was odd seeing Harry be the rational one but this was an odd situation to begin with, they were rolling with the punches. Draco had calmed down and had begun eating his meal, Harry following his lead as Severus began to talk. "There isn't a lot to tell. When soul mates find each other and confess their feelings the bond forms. Such a powerful and special bond leave physical reminders. There is usually only one bracelet each, but there have been cases of two each. The more intricate the band the stronger the bond. Usually when the bond is strong enough to run over into two bracelets, the second isn't very detailed. Yours however are both highly detailed. So it is probably the strongest to date. That is all that is really known about the bond. It will attack anyone who threatens it and you two are allowed shared quarters at Hogwarts. That is about it."

"That really isn't a whole lot to go with. This is just so weird. Don't get me wrong, I am happy Harry and I are soul mates but on the weirdness scale, an almost extinct kind of bond ranks pretty high up there."

Harry had been watching Draco and he was glad the blond was happy with the turn of events. The slightly bewildered look on Draco's face was too adorable. Harry grabbed the blond's hand and leaned over to place a kiss on his cheek. Harry felt Draco start to blush, and in retaliation Draco places a sweet kiss on Harry's nose. Harry simply smiled and laid his head on Draco's shoulder.

Severus, who had been watching the exchange, spoke up. "You know, I am so proud of the two of you." Both teens looked at him in confusion. "You both were raised by cruel families and yet, your capacity for love is astounding."

The look on the man's face was one of a father watching his children grow up and Harry was struck by just how badly he wanted this man as a father. "Y'know, I really wish you were my father." And that was all Harry said.

After Severus had finished his food Draco announced they were going grocery shopping. "I do not want to starve before we make it back to Hogwarts!" So Harry paid the bill, and they were off on their first 'muggle adventure'.

A/N: when I started this story this was not the way I planned for it to go, but what ever. Eventually I will be able to write sad stories.


	5. Hiatus

Hey guys, I am sorry but I am putting this story on hold. I will continue writing but it may be a while before I post. I just can't write right now. I have to be in the mood to write and I'm not in the mood for this story. I'm going to work on some other fics for the time being.


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